Black-yawning a portal, thy soul to affright, Like the gate to the kingdom, the fiend for the king-- Yet beyond it there smiles but a land of delight, Where the autumn in marriage is met with the spring. From a lot which the care and the trouble assail, Could I fly to the bliss of that balm-breathing vale! Through that field, from a fount ever hidden their birth, Four rivers in tumult rush roaringly forth; They fly to the fourfold divisions of earth-- The sunrise, the sunset, the south, and the north. And, true to the mystical mother that bore, Forth they rush to their goal, and are lost evermore. High over the races of men in the blue Of the ether, the mount in twin summits is riven; There, veiled in the gold-woven webs of the dew, Moves the dance of the clouds--the pale daughters of heaven! There, in solitude, circles their mystical maze, Where no witness can hearken, no earthborn surveys. August on a throne which no ages can move, Sits a queen, in her beauty serene and sublime, [22] The diadem blazing with diamonds above The glory of brows, never darkened by time, His arrows of light on that form shoots the sun-- And he gilds them with all, but he warms them with none! THE ALPINE HUNTER. Wilt thou not the lambkins guard? Oh, how soft and meek they look, Feeding on the grassy sward, Sporting round the silvery brook! "Mother, mother, let me go On yon heights to chase the roe!" Wilt thou not the flock compel With the horn's inspiring notes? Sweet the echo of yon bell, As across the wood it floats! "Mother, mother, let me go On yon heights to hunt the roe!" Wilt thou not the flow'rets bind, Smiling gently in their bed? For no garden thou wilt find On yon heights so wild and dread. "Leave the flow'rets,--let them blow! Mother, mother, let me go!" And the youth then sought the chase, Onward pressed with headlong speed To the mountain's gloomiest place,-- Naught his progress could impede; And before him, like the wind, Swiftly flies the trembling hind! Up the naked precipice Clambers she, with footsteps light, O'er the chasm's dark abyss Leaps with spring of daring might; But behind, unweariedly, With his death-bow follows he. Now upon the rugged top Stands she,--on the loftiest height, Where the cliffs abruptly stop, And the path is lost to sight. There she views the steeps below,-- Close behind, her mortal foe. She, with silent, woeful gaze, Seeks the cruel boy to move; But, alas! in vain she prays-- To the string he fits the groove. When from out the clefts, behold! Steps the Mountain Genius old. With his hand the Deity Shields the beast that trembling sighs; "Must thou, even up to me, Death and anguish send?" he cries,-- Earth has room for all to dwell,-- "Why pursue my loved gazelle?"